Ministry of Public Health: migrant worker checkups completed within a month

BANGKOK, 1 July 2014 - The Ministry of Public Health is confident that the physical examination requirement for migrant workers will be completed within a month as scheduled.

Dr Supakij Sirilak, a specialist in preventive medicine from the MOPH, today convened a video conference with public health physicians throughout the country to follow up on health checkups for migrant workers.

For example, the public health physician from Samut Sakorn province had reported that 1,998 migrant workers were checked for blood disease, lung condition and tuberculosis yesterday; only two of these were diagnosed with a disease that prevented their entry to Thailand.

In addition, the premiums of health insurance have been decreased for Cambodian, Myanmar and Laotian nationals who are granted a license for temporary stay in the Kingdom; 500 baht for 3-months protection, 900 baht for 6-months protection, and 1,600 baht for 1-year of health insurance coverage.

If the checkup report shows symptoms of any prohibited diseases including third-phase syphilis, tuberculosis, elephantiasis and psychiatric disorders, the diagnosed person will be repatriated to their home country in order to prevent an outbreak of disease in the area offering work.

Furthermore, he urged each public health physician to implement long term measures to encourage more workers to take advantage of the checkup service. Phuket, for instance, has reported only 5,000 workers in the social security fund and 20,000 with health insurance, while 75,000 other foreign workers cannot be reached.